Y-town BOE was warned about Parker, officials say

YOUNGSTOWN — The city isn’t interested in improving Parker Street, a road the Youngstown City School District says it needs as an access route to its new $31 million East High School.

City council’s building and grounds committee voted 2-0 today to vacate, that is give up ownership of, the entire 2,400-foot road and turn it over to the abutting property owner — the city school district.

The committee turned down a request from the school district to improve what everyone agreed is a very deteriorated street.

Carmen Conglose Jr., deputy director of the city’s public works department, estimated that it would cost $1 million to rebuild the road.

There is no other development along that street other than the new high school and the city has no need for it as a public street, Conglose said.

Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs, said the school district is looking for help from the city to make repairs to Parker Street.

“It will be heavily used [when the school opens in September],” he said.

Councilman Rufus Hudson, D-2nd, chairman of the building and grounds committee, said he and other city officials had tried to warn the school district not to build along Parker Street, advising them that there was a water problem.

The city suggested the school district tear down the old East High School along nearby East High Street and rebuild on the same site, but the district chose to do otherwise, Hudson said.

Conglose, who recommended today that the city vacate the street and turn it over to the school district to use as a private driveway into the school, said he had also cautioned school officials and their engineers and architects about the poor condition of Parker Street before construction began.

After the meeting, he suggested to DeNiro that the district rebuild between 700 and 800 feet of Parker as a private driveway to access the school. Building it as a driveway rather than a city street might cost around $150,000, he said.